It is desirous to reduce the noise generated by aircraft, for example, to lessen disruption or inconvenience, resulting from aircraft noise, caused to the public on the ground near airports. A significant amount of noise is generated by the interaction of the aircraft and the air flowing past it, which results in turbulent flows and consequently noise. It is particularly important to reduce noise created during approach of the aircraft on landing. During approach, a significant contribution to the amount of noise that the aircraft generates is made by the landing gear, which is typically deployed early for landing for safety reasons. The deployment of the landing gear increases drag and assists deceleration of the aircraft. During take-off, noise from the landing gear is a less significant factor because engine noise is generally greater and because the landing gear is generally stowed at the earliest opportunity to reduce drag and aid take-off. During normal flight, the landing gear of an aircraft is typically stowed in a landing gear bay, the bay being completely or partially closed by doors so that the landing gear is not subjected to the air flow.
FIG. 1a of the accompanying drawings shows a landing gear 110 of a prior art aircraft. The landing gear 110 comprises a telescopic landing gear leg 111 having an upper portion 111a and a lower portion 111b, arranged for sliding movement relative to the upper portion 111a. It will be seen that there are many parts of the landing gear 110 that may contribute to the turbulent airflows which cause undesirable noise. The present invention is primarily concerned with reducing noise caused by the torque link set 112, a magnified view of which being shown in FIG. 1b. In the landing gear 110 of FIGS. 1a and 1b, the torque link set 112 is in the form of a simple two-link hinged mechanism connecting the upper portion 111a of the leg 111 to the lower portion 111b, thereby restricting rotational movement of the upper and lower portions 111a, 111b about the axis of the landing gear leg 111. Thus the torque link set 112 acts to transmit torque loads from the upper portion 111a to the lower portion 111b of the landing gear leg 111 and vice versa. The torque link set 112 is arranged so as not to interfere with the normal compression and extension of the landing gear leg 111.
As shown more clearly in FIG. 1b, the torque link set comprises an upper torque link 112a hinged to a lower torque link 112b. The design of the torque links 112a, 112b is traditionally driven by the optimisation of the structural requirement to transmit the necessary torque loads. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, the links 112a, 112b are typically triangular in plan form with the base of each triangle connecting at two points to the upper and lower leg portions 111a, 111b, respectively. There is also a single point connection 112c at the apexes of the triangles where the two torque links meet. The structural requirement also drives the sectional detail of the links where an H-section profile is used. Lightening holes 114 are provided in the torque links 112a, 112b to reduce mass (the links 112a, 112b are typically machined from metal alloy). The torque links 112a, 112b are typically positioned in front of the landing gear leg 111. The combination of the planform, H-section geometry, lightening holes and the position in front of the leg gives rise to very poor aerodynamic and aero acoustic properties. Much turbulence is generated resulting in undesirable noise. This is made worse by using the links 112a, 112b to clip systems pipe-work 116 to the outside of the torque links 112a, 112b to ensure smooth kink free runs to the lower leg portion 111b. 
WO01/04003 describes an aircraft landing gear and apparatus including a plurality of attachments for noise reduction purposes. The attachments are shaped and positioned on the landing gear to deflect air away from noise-inducing components of the landing gear and to permit deflection and articulation movement and also stowage of the landing gear with the attachments in situ. Noise-inducing parts of the landing gear are however still exposed to airflow. The landing gear arrangement of WO01/04003 has a configuration in which torque links are positioned behind the landing gear leg and so are to some extent shielded from the airflow. WO01/04003 discloses the concept of attaching a single fairing attachment to one of a pair of torque links for the purposes of noise reduction. The fairing attachment is bolted onto the torque link by means of bolts and a backing plate. Adding a bolt-on fairing to a torque link in such a way increases mass and increases the number of serviceable components on the aircraft.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,836 describes a non-retractable landing gear with two torque links and an afterbody attached to one or both of the torque links in order to reduce drag. The document mentions the possibility of the afterbody and the torque link being formed as an integral member. No detailed disclosure is provided concerning how such an integral member would be formed. It seems therefore that the integral member would simply have the same shape as the embodiments of U.S. Pat. No. 4,027,836, in which the torque links and afterbody are provided as separate members. The integral member would still have two distinct parts to it, despite being integrally formed; namely, an afterbody part for performing the drag-reducing function and torque link parts for performing a structural function. It is assumed that the integrally formed member would be made from the one and same material. Whilst the number of serviceable components of such an arrangement might be less than the arrangement of WO01/04003, it would seem that simply forming the torque links and afterbody as an integrally formed component of the same material would not be a weight-efficient means of providing faired torque links.
The present invention seeks to mitigate the above-mentioned problems. Alternatively or additionally, the present invention seeks to provide an improved aircraft landing gear torque link set.